An Enhanced Inter-Cell Interference Coordination (eICIC) technology is mainly applicable to heterogeneous networks. Traditional macro cell networks have characteristics such as focusing on outdoor and despising indoor, focusing on networking and despising hotspot. In the traditional macro cell networks, insufficient consideration is given to increasingly developing applications of hotspot users. Taking the above factor into consideration, it is needed to add low-power nodes in a macro cell. These low-power nodes may include pico, femto, relay and so on and these low-power nodes together form a heterogeneous network. Some new interference scenarios are introduced into the heterogeneous network. How to provide high-quality services in these interference scenarios as far as possible is a topic commonly concerned by operators and equipment manufacturers.
The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) organization carries out a research on the solution to interference existing in heterogeneous networks. At present, relatively mature solutions include an ABS technology and a micro cell (specifically, a micro base station which is usually referred to as HeNB) automatic power adjustment technology.
The ABS technology is a technology in which only CRS, neither a control channel nor data, is sent in a frame (except special conditions) when this frame is configured as an ABS frame, so that other cells will suffer a relatively small interference when sending data in this subframe. It can be seen that the core idea of the ABS technology is that a macro cell configures an ABS subframe and relevant micro cells schedules data in this subframe, so as to reduce the interference. As shown in accompanying drawings, the macro cell (specifically a macro base station which is usually referred to as MeNB) has interference on UE under the HeNB, under such a circumstance, an ABS is configured on the MeNB, and the HeNB schedules all UEs interfered by the MeNB on the corresponding subframe, so that the degree of the interference suffered by these UEs can be reduced.
In Long Term Evolution (LTE), micro cells report load information and ABS utilization rate to a macro cell through an X2 interface. The macro cell dynamically adjusts the ABS proportion of the macro cell according to the load information of the macro cell in conjunction with the ABS subframe utilization rate and the load information of all micro cells in the coverage of the macro cell. The macro cell then transmits adjusted ABS subframe information to the micro cells through the X2 interface. After a micro cell receives the ABS subframe information transmitted from the macro cell, the micro cell schedules UEs seriously interfered by the macro cell on the ABS subframe of the macro cell.
In order to improve the utilization rate of Physical Resource Block (PRB), after the micro cell schedules the UEs interfered by the macro cell on the ABS subframe, in the condition that the ABS subframe resource is redundant, the redundant ABS subframe resource may be allocated to UEs not seriously interfered by the macro cell. When this technical scheme is adopted, the ABS subframe utilization rate reported by the micro cell to the macro cell through the X2 interface cannot truly reflect the actual ABS utilization rate. In an extreme condition, the micro cell may have no interfered UE, and the PRBs of the ABS subframe are totally occupied by non-interfered UEs. In another situation, there may be interfered UEs, but these UEs have no service being executed, then the ABS subframe utilization rate is 0, under such a circumstance, the macro cell should not adjust the ABS proportion to 0, so as to ensure that there is an ABS subframe available for these interfered UEs.
In view of the problem in the relevant technologies that the ABS subframe utilization rate reported by the micro cell to the macro cell cannot truly reflect the actual ABS utilization rate, no solution has been put forward so far.